Staring At A Computer All Day? Eat These Foods To Protect Your Eyes

When it comes to all of our concerns with health and wellness, I feel that eye health is totally slacking. We get concerned with our weight, with how our skin looks, how we feel, our energy levels, but our vision seems to be pretty low on the priority list when it comes to keeping them in tip top shape.

So I’m writing today to say, take a peep at this article and why you should be paying more attention to the health of your eyes!

I’ve always had 20/20 vision, but now that I’ve been staring at a computer screen between 7-10 hours a day, there is an obvious strain on my eyes. As I’m getting older, I’m starting to become aware of the function of every part of my body, including my eyes, and how I can eat to maintain sharp vision for as long as I can. So if you want to take extra care of your eyes (since I’m sure a lot of us experience eye strain from looking at screens all the time), check out these foods to eat!

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Eat These Foods For Eye Health

Foods containing lutein and zeaxanthin: Lutein and zeaxanthin are carotenoids which gives produce a yellow hue, and it helps protect our vision by acting as a defense against harmful light wavelengths that can damage our retinas. Foods rich in these carotenoids include dark leafy greens, broccoli, zucchini, egg yolk and brussels sprouts.

Foods rich in Vitamin A: We all know that vitamin A helps our vision, which is why we were always told as children to eat all the carrots on our plate. Produce that is rich in vitamin A include – sweet potato, carrots, spinach, kale, and broccoli.

Cold water fish: Wild caught tuna and salmon are packed with omega 3’s that are linked to ensuring that our eyes stay hydrated. Especially during times when we aren’t blinking much – like when we stare at computer screens. If you are strictly a plant-based eater, adding flaxseed oil and black current oil to your diet will also help keep your eyes hydrated.

Lentils: Adding lentils to your diet gives you a daily dose of zinc which is a mineral that has been linked to helping maintain the health of our retinas.

Nuts: Nuts like walnuts and pistachios are also rich in omega 3 and include vitamin E which also helps us prevent dry eyes.

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And, in honor of Women’s Eye Health Month, I partnered up with Visionworks to provide some additional education for y’all via the super informative info-graphic that they put together for you below, and to check up on the health of my own eyes. I was surprised to learn that staring at a laptop so frequently really is putting a strain on my eyes!

I paid a visit to the Lincoln Park Visionworks location and met with Dr. Gregory Actipes, who is bursting with personality and is super fabulous, by the way. Going into the appointment, I had one important question on my mind which was to ask him why my pupils are always dilated (seriously sometimes I feel like my pupils take up my entire eye). When I asked Dr. Actipes this, he informed me that my pupils may always be large as I am a high energy being and my sympathetic nervous system may always be elevated, meaning that I’m always super aware and stimulated. He also said because I’m in a state of high energy, people must come to me when things need to get done (which is super true!). So I thought that was an interesting little tid bit of the visit.

Anyway, turns out that I was prescribed glasses to use only when I’m working on my computer (as I am now) so that it can help prevent eye strain and any damage that can take place because of this down the road. I will admit that I do feel extra intelligent wearing these eye glasses, so maybe I’ll wear them out and about too just for giggles.

So in honor of Women’s Eye Health Month, Visionworks is challenging women everywhere to spring into action and care for their eyes, so check out the tips and tricks for taking care of your eyes on the Women’s Eye Health Month Infographic!

Disclaimer: This article is in partnership with Visionworks, all writings and opinions are my own.